Highlights:

Retail investors push equity mutual fund inflow to Rs 16,000 crore in October

Equity mutual funds registered an inflow of over Rs 16,000 crore in October, buoyed by strong participation from retail investors, latest data with industry body Amfi showed. This has taken the total inflow into such funds to over Rs 96,000 crore in the first seven months of the ongoing financial year. Inflows in April-October have already been robust. With 5 months to go in this fiscal and the burgeoning number of SIPs (Systematic Investment Plans) in equity and balanced funds, 2017-18 may go down as the best year yet for mutual fund inflows. According to the data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), equity funds, which also include equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS), saw net inflows of Rs 16,002 crore in October, compared to Rs 18,936 crore in the preceding month. This also marks the 19th straight month of inflows into equity schemes. Prior to that, such funds had witnessed a pullout of Rs 1,370 crore in March 2016.

Edelweiss MF seeks SEBI nod for close-ended equity fund

Edelweiss Mutual Fund has sought the Securities and Exchange Board of India's approval for launching Edelweiss Maiden Opportunities Fund- Series 1 and Series 2, according to a draft offer document on the regulator's website.

Sundaram Mutual seeks regulatory nod for 3-year ELSS Fund

Sundaram Mutual Fund has filed an offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India seeking approval to launch an equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS), Sundaram Long Term Advantage Fund-III and IV , according to information on the regulator’s website. Under the closeended equity scheme series, the lock-in period will be of three years. The scheme will allocate at least 80 percent of its assets in equity and equity-related instruments and the balance 20 percent will be deployed in debt and money market instruments. The scheme also has the provision to invest up to 10 percent of its corpus in units issued by REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust & InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trusts). Investments of up to Rs 1.5 lakh in ELSS Fund can earn a tax benefit under Section 80C of Income Tax Act.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund winds up annual interval plan

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has wound up its annual interval fund--ICICI Prudential Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan III with effect from November 22. The fund was wound up as the scheme was not able to meet the asset under management criteria. According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's norms, all open-ended debt oriented schemes have to maintain assets under management of at least Rs 20 crore at all times.

LIC Mutual Fund changes the exit load of LIC MF Balanced Fund

LIC Mutual Fund has changed the exit load of LIC MF Balanced Fund effective from Nov 17. Accordingly, 10% of the units can be redeemed without any exit load before 12 months and 1% of exit load will be charged if redeemed after 12 months. At present, 1% of exit load is applicable if redeemed before one year from the date of allotment.